The Emotional Roller Coaster of Life - The Future-Takes
by Jadiona
Summary: There's always another ride to take, another loop in life. Years after the end of the The Emotional Roller Coaster of Life and there's another chance glance at where the characters are now. Originally posted in the second BatB compilation.
1. Beach Life

****Disclaimer: ****I am not Stephenie Meyer and therefore I do not own Twilight or the wonderful characters I screw with.

**AN: **These scenes are set in the future, after the end of The Roller Coaster Of Life, and it is recommended to read that story first. Originally, these scenes were offered as part of the second year of The Babies at the Border Compilation.

_The entirety of The Future-Takes was beta'd by monica03_

**Beach Life**

_**July 17th, 2026**_

"This suit sucks," one of the students said as she pulled on the sleeve of the rubber wetsuit.

Leah chuckled. "You'll get used to it."

It was her forty-second group class since she'd started instructing scuba diving more than fourteen years prior. She preferred instructing one-on-one, but especially with kids, it always seemed to have to be done in groups.

Parents didn't want to trust their little ones with someone if they didn't know it was a class.

Being a mother herself, part of her got it, but she still found it problematic. Teaching even one brat to scuba dive at a time was hard enough... oops, she meant, one brilliant spark of life.

She'd never expected for her small business of teaching people to scuba dive to become her main means of income, but it was how it happened.

Of course, her other major mean of income – working at the garage – had ended when Jake and she had gotten a divorce almost two years ago.

Jake and she had been married for more than ten years. And in some ways, they could have lasted a lifetime. But after she'd had Kara – their youngest – almost five years ago now, her sex drive had dropped to nil.

And if Jake had been satisfied with just love and companionship than they'd probably still be married. But him, unlike her, still had a healthy sexual appetite.

Then again, she supposed if she'd been willing to let him satisfy that desire elsewhere, they'd still be married. She wouldn't be married to someone sleeping around, though... which was more than a little ironic given her past.

So she'd divorced him.

Unfortunately, their relationship had been strained since.

So she focused her efforts into her job, teaching people to be proficient scuba divers – though some simply didn't want to put in the effort that it truly took to become a good scuba diver.

And as the same kid continued to pull on the sleeve of her wetsuit, she suspected that kid was one such person.

…

Jake sat on his roll around stool for a moment as he took his break, pulling out a cigarette and lighting it up.

It was a nasty habit, and he knew it, but once he'd started in on it, he didn't seem to want to stop.

He blamed Leah.

After all, he'd only picked it up since his divorce.

Embry lowered a car on one of the hydraulic lifts, looking toward Jake once it was down. "You know, my son is over eight years old, and I've still never even gotten to _meet_ him."

"Yeah, it sucks. But you sort of have no one to blame but yourself." He knew that was harsh as, in truth, it was hardly Embry's fault. But Jake was nervous, which meant he wasn't in the best of moods. Besides, he was tired of Embry's woe is me temperament.

Embry scowled. "There should be a warning label when it comes to the terminology of statutory rape."

He knew the story, Embry had only been sixteen when he'd slept with a girl by the name of Elena who'd moved from Neah Bay to La Push only a year before. They'd been dating for a while before they'd taken that step, and she'd been in the same grade as him – a junior in high school – so he'd believed she was the same age as him. But she'd actually been only fifteen. And after her parents found out she was pregnant, they had him charged with statutory rape.

Even though they moved away before everything was done, and before Elena had her son, he ended up being convicted. And because he'd had sex with someone under the age of consent, even though she had consented, it had been determined to be sex with a minor. Which meant he'd been put on the Sex Offenders List and kicked out of school.

More than eight years later, and it was still ruining his half-brother's life.

Quil, who'd originally wanted nothing more than to join both Jake and Embry working at the garage, had actually gone on to college instead and then had moved away.

Of course, in another year and a half, Claire would be eighteen, and though she wasn't related to Jake, he strongly suspected she'd be coming to work for him.

And, he knew, some people probably thought it was weird that almost half of his employees were women – given that it was an auto garage. But he actually found that women tended to have a more deft hand, and were generally more flexible than most men.

In fact, he currently had Bianca and Valentina – Yorkie's two oldest – working for him, and an African American woman who'd moved to town about a year prior that went by Taylor.

Taylor and he had actually been dating for the last four months.

On top of them, he had Isaac, Collin, Brady, and Embry working for him.

"I don't know what to say, Embry. I'm not exactly the person to be asking for parenting advice. I only see my oldest on the weekends, which is now split with Leah. And I only have my younger three on Tuesdays and Thursdays."

"I still don't get why you gave up a day with Ephraim and Vanessa to her, anyway. She has no relation to them."

"She's been as much a part of their life as I have. Besides, _I'm_ only actually related to one of them."

"Don't remind me. They're twins, for gods' sake."

Jake dropped his cigarette to the ground and crushed it under his foot. Did he know that it was really stupid to smoke in an auto garage? Yep. Did he care, though? Now, that was the question.

…

"Mom! What's for supper?" Sean asked.

She rolled her eyes. "I don't know. I just got home. Give me a minute to at least get my suit off."

"I told him you're making worms... Or maybe I am," Melissa grumbled.

Leah let out a startled laugh. "And why's that?"

"Because he's driving me insane. Why am I stuck babysitting, anyway?"

"You wanted the job last summer, remember?"

"I didn't realize it would be this much of a pain in the as... pin cushion."

Leah narrowed her eyes at her oldest. "Well, that wouldn't be my fault, would it?"

Kara ran over to her, stretching her arms up. "I want up!"

"You want to shower with momma. Because if I pick you up, you're going to have to."

"No! No shower!" She backed up fast.

Leah started heading to her bedroom but paused on the way. "Maybe we'll have some clams tonight. I don't know."

Truth was, she wasn't much of a cook. She could drop stuff in water, or another liquid, and that was about the extent of her skill. But she tried to make do, for the sake of her kids.

It had been easier when Jake and she had still been married, when she'd been working at the garage, because then she'd had a reasonable excuse to stop at Bella's little diner and get food for them there. But now, she almost never made it down to Forks from La Push.

She missed the easy relationship she'd had with Jake. But it was more than a little late for regrets. She should know, he'd actually gone to the trouble of letting her know his plans – a courtesy, he'd called it... She'd thought of it more as a stabbing pain.

Leah shook her head and continued to her shower.

…

Even when he'd been in fit health, he'd never been able to get around a car fast enough to open a door for the girl. And Jake hadn't been in that kind of health in almost fifteen years.

So he let Taylor get her own door as he parked on the edge of First Beach – the sun was just beginning to set as they got out.

"I don't know how anyone can ever get tired of this sight." Taylor looked out at the water. "The reds and oranges, the terracottas and yellows. It's simply amazing."

Normally, he'd grumble how it was quite easy to get tired of it, but he swallowed it down.

"Let's go for a walk." He stepped over to her, taking her hand and walking with her along one of the oldest paths he'd ever traveled.

The path took them down to the beach and past the pits where he used to make driftwood fires with Seth, past the tidal pools that he pushed Bella into when they were kids, past the giant pieces of driftwood that were good for sitting on, past the rock cropping where his dad's boat had drifted into, and past the big trees that were good to make out against. All the way to a little inlet with a huge overhanging rock, which left the area almost always in shadows.

The path held hundreds of memories, as many good as bad.

But as they reached the small inlet, the sunset casting it in the only light it ever got, he intended for it to be a place of at least one more memory.

Jake came to a stop and turned toward Taylor, pulling out a little black box as he dropped to one knee in front of her.

"Taylor Renault, will you marry me?"

Her answer. Good or bad. It would be another memory.


	2. WCCW

****Disclaimer: ****I am not Stephenie Meyer and therefore I do not own Twilight or the wonderful characters I screw with.

**WCCW**

_**January 12th, 2028**_

Alice bolted upright, waking in a cold sweat after the sound of the gavel coming down. It had been more than six years, and the day – the memory which was now a recurring nightmare – still haunted her.

She jerked out of bed and ran to the bathroom, barely managing to slam the lid up before she tossed her cookies.

Jasper was suddenly just there behind her, holding her hair out of the way.

"Sorry," she muttered as she flushed the toilet before getting up and pulling away to wash her face and hands.

"You really need to talk to someone about this," he murmured.

She'd stopped seeing a psychologist shortly after their youngest adopted daughter had gone off to college a little over four years ago... Not that he'd really helped her all that much to begin with.

"There's nothing that a shrink can tell me that I don't already know."

He sighed. "Then explain it to me, because this –" he waved his hand vaguely at the toilet and then her "– isn't healthy."

She turned to look at her husband, leaning back against the bathroom counter. "It should have been me. Or Edward. Or, hell... Bella. It should have been anyone but my daughter. I'd gotten her out. I'd made sure she was safe from my dad. But it was _her_ that blew his brains out. And now she's spending life in prison without the chance of parole. The only reason she didn't get the death penalty is because this state doesn't have that option.

"I can't change what happened. No one can. It doesn't change my guilt, though. There's no cure-all for it, no way to go back in time. But god, I wish there was."

What she didn't say, couldn't possibly explain to her husband, was how badly she felt she failed Didyme.

Because she'd allowed herself to be happy. She'd allowed herself to lose control, to become complacent in her own world. And the cost for her truly sinking into the life she had with Jasper, Athenodora, Maysun, and Kebi had been that she hadn't been keeping tabs frequently enough to find out about her daughter in time to prevent what happened.

But to admit that, to even think it, meant that in some way she didn't value Athenodora, Maysun, and Kebi in the same way as she did Didyme.

At least that was how her mind equated it.

It wasn't true. She loved her adopted daughters.

But if that was how her mind logicked it out, then how could she expect anyone else to see it differently.

Thoughts of her daughters reminded her of – "Aren't Kebi and Maysun flying in from Haiti in a few hours?"

Their two youngest had spent the last six months in Haiti on a community service project; building structures, piping in running water, offering free meals to the locals, and more.

"Yes. You probably should get ready to go pick them up in Seattle."

"You're not going?" She couldn't hide her shock.

Though Maysun had initially been afraid of Jasper, she'd grown extremely attached to him. In all honesty, Maysun was more his than hers.

"I've got an appointment with my psychiatrist in the morning."

She frowned. It wasn't his normal day for an appointment.

He grinned. "Besides, you'll want to take them shopping and shit. That's so not my scene."

She stuck her tongue out at him.

…

If his wife had known where he was really going, she would have been pissed.

It was why he hadn't told her.

Jasper sat at the table across from Didyme in the Washington Correction Center for Women – WCCW for short.

"How are you doing?"

The young woman with long golden-brown hair and bright green eyes – closer in looks to her father than her mother – glared at him, though he knew not to take it personally. He'd realized from his first meeting with her, years prior, that she was simply that angry.

"I'm fine, Jasper."

"Are you?" He looked at the pink jumpsuit conspicuously.

It was never a good color to be wearing in a prison – especially a prison where most of the prisoners wore orange or khaki suits.

She shrugged slightly. "It's been a long month already."

"What did you do?"

"Nothing that matters."

He sighed. "You make it hard to convince a new lawyer to try to appeal your case."

"No lawyer is going to be able to get my sentence reduced. Every single thing that could have helped get me a reduced sentence was suppressed or otherwise considered inadmissible. As far as the court is concerned – and is going to continue being concerned – I made my way across the country for no reason whatsoever and killed the man in cold blood. That's not going to change."

"You don't know that for sure. Just because your first lawyer was a louse and couldn't get your biology allowed in court doesn't mean that a new one couldn't."

"And if he does? What's that going to mean for my mother? My uncle? There was a reason Mr. Virtuoso let it go in the first place. And that was because I wanted him to."

"I think Alice would rather have her past dragged out in the open then leave you to rot here, Dee-Dee. And it doesn't help that you refuse to see her."

"She doesn't understand, Jasper. Everything that happened needs to end with me. I want it to end with me."

"This wasn't the life she wanted for you."

"I know." Didyme looked down at her hands for a moment. "But this was my decision."

"And I still don't get that. You had a life in Florida."

"I'm not sure how to explain it. My childhood was great. I was happy. At least until my mom died of cancer. The instant she was gone, I wanted to know why I'd been given up for adoption. I became obsessed, digging hard enough to find out the truth. Once I found out I couldn't not know... and then my dad died.

"But the thing is, in another life, Phil and Samantha would never have been my adopted parents because Alice probably never would have given me up. But because she knew what might happen to me if he'd found out I existed..." She shrugged slightly. "What can I say? He had to pay. He had to."

"She had you when you were fourteen, she'd still probably have given you up for adoption. Even if the situation surrounding who your father was had been different."

"Maybe, but it probably wouldn't have been done with so much cloak and dagger crap."

To that, he had no valid response.

…

Alice drove Kebi and Maysun to the mall where Athenodora met them.

Athenodora, who was almost a foot taller than her, lifted her up for a few seconds like she weighed nothing as she hugged her. "MOM!"

"There is something seriously wrong with one of my daughters picking me up," Alice grumbled as she was set back on her feet.

Athenodora chuckled.

"It's not our fault you're just this little thing," Kebi, who was even taller than Athenodora, said.

Of the three, only Maysun was a reasonable height... and even she was six inches taller than Alice.

"I am _not little_." Okay, even she knew that was a lie.

"Yeah, right. You aren't even five foot tall."

Alice crossed her arms over her chest as she pouted.

"So, how was Haiti?" Athenodora asked, looking at Kebi.

"Hot. Very fucking hot."

Alice opened her mouth to chastise Kebi for swearing.

"The work was hard but satisfying," Maysun said quietly.

Alice glanced at the quietest of her daughters in surprise as she shut her mouth. It was almost unheard of for her to volunteer information.

"There's a shoe sale at Clementines, isn't there?" Kebi asked, changing the subject.

Alice nodded, still looking suspiciously at Maysun.

After a moment, Alice shook it off and led them into the store.

…

Jasper probably should have offered to help bring in the bags of clothes. He wasn't touching the bags with a ten-foot pole though... they might bite or something.

It took them four trips to bring everything in the house.

"Athenodora?" He was surprised to see their oldest amongst them.

"I decided I wanted a family night."

"Why?" It wasn't that he wasn't happy to see her, but... Some might say suspicion was his middle name.

"I'm pregnant."

"WHAT!"

"WHEN?"

"HUH?"

The surprised and shocked voices of Alice, Kebi, and Maysun blended together.

"Aren't you a little young?" he managed to ask, voice half-choked.

"I'm twenty-five, dad."

"Like I said."

She shook her head. "I didn't find out until yesterday. Sancar doesn't know."

"He'll call as soon as he's settled. You can tell him then."

She looked at him, fear evident in her eyes.

He understood then and stepped towards her, reaching out and pulling her in for a hug.

"Nothing's going to happen to him, Athenodora. We're not at war currently," he murmured as Alice, Kebi, and Maysun surrounded them, making a giant group hug.

They weren't a family of blood. But love bound them together tighter than that.


	3. Swan Song Fashion

****Disclaimer: ****I am not Stephenie Meyer and therefore I do not own Twilight or the wonderful characters I screw with.

**Swan Song Fashion**

_**August 12th, 2030**_

Rosalie and Maggie glanced at each other.

Rosalie wasn't sure which of them was actually more surprised that the day had finally arrived. The sign on the building, **SWAN SONG FASHION** – all shiny and new – was what she was looking at, but it was only the start. It had taken almost a solid two years for her to get a property purchased and the building designed, but she finally had her very own store.

Correction, Maggie and she had a store.

"You going to come inside, or are you two just going to stand outside and admire the sign?" Morrigan asked as she opened the door.

Rosalie glanced at Morrigan, her oldest of six kids. Morrigan was the spitting image of her when she'd been eighteen, but she had her father's attitude. Blunt, sarcastic, and not the least bit polite. Her daughter would be going off to college to start working towards a degree in law enforcement in the fall.

She still wasn't sure how she felt about her daughter following in her husband's footsteps, but she couldn't exactly stop her, besides it wasn't like her daughter was ever going to go into fashion...

No, that was going to be her oldest son.

Rosalie still suspected her two eldest must have had their identities transplanted somehow as kids. After all, weren't boys supposed to go into law enforcement and girls into fashion?

She knew that sounded outdated, but the fact that her Sebastian – with his bleached white hair that was gelled so much that it stuck up, solid black clothing, and nose piercing – was actually a bit of a fashion genius still totally blew her mind.

"Come on, your daughter is getting impatient," Maggie said.

Rosalie rolled her eyes in exasperation but headed to the doors to go inside her store.

The inside of her store felt huge, though she knew it honestly wasn't all that big. Still, the showroom floor was almost 8,000 square feet, and that didn't include the backroom, changing rooms, bathrooms, or offices.

The showroom was an open floor, but ultimately was divided into sections – as was the way with clothing stores – with wedding dresses, ball gowns, and matching accessories on the south side of the store. The main area of the store had more normal clothes, both casual and business attire, and it was split into individual areas for plus, misses, petite, junior, children, and a small section for toddlers. To the north there was a single row of men's clothes; mostly suits with some dress shirts and slacks. And finally, towards the back of the store, was a small area for pajamas and lingerie.

Only some of the clothing in her store was designed by her personally – having finally branched out by 'hiring' a second designer about eight years prior.

And what Rosalie meant by she 'hired' a second designer was that she didn't fire Heidi when her model had retired from modeling. It turned out that Heidi had a real talent for designing different types of sleepwear. And since then, Corin, Noella, and her own son, Sebastian, had all become contributing designers in her business.

Unlike Siobhan – a permanent thorn in her side – who'd ended up having a group commitment ceremony with Liam and Maggie about seven years ago, some of her former models actually did have a talent for things other than just strutting their stuff.

She walked through the dual rows of junior clothing, mostly all designed by Noella and her son. Eventually, still years out, she knew she'd hand the business over to Sebastian. Even though part of Rosalie wished it was Morrigan, Valerie, or even Demeter – which there was still a possibility when it came to the last as her youngest was only four – she was still proud that her legacy would be passed on to _someone._

Her two youngest had both ended up being surprises. Her youngest son, Jarlie, had been born seven years ago, and three years later she gave birth to Demeter – Rosalie had finally given into Emmett and named a child after her silicone toy... She was going to make him be the one that explained _that_ to her if she ever asked.

"Is dad going to make the grand opening?" Sebastian asked as he came out of one of the offices in the back.

"He's working today, so I doubt he'll get here for the opening, but he'll be here by closing. Unless Valerie needs him at home." Rosalie still wasn't sure how she felt about Valerie babysitting, but she'd needed Morrigan and Sebastian to help for the day. Besides, in all honesty, Jerrimatt was old enough to take care of himself, it was just Jarlie and Demeter that needed watching after.

She shook her head to clear her thoughts. "Come on, we have three hours 'til we officially open and people will be lining up before then. Let's get to work."

…

Emmett glanced at the text on his phone briefly, glaring in annoyance when he saw who it was from, before focusing back on the meeting with his commanding officer, the chief of the Los Angeles police department.

He was making almost three times as much as what he'd been making when he'd been the chief of police of Forks, commanded well over fifty times more officers, and saw a lot more action. But he still wasn't certain he'd call being the Deputy Chief over Major Crimes as a step up.

The thing was, five years ago it had been move and find a new job or potentially lose the love of his life, not to mention the five little lights of his life, which only a short year later became six. Besides, his big bro had moved to California with his husband and daughter two years before that.

"Are you listening to me, Whitlock?" George Mickulen, the chief of police, demanded.

Not really. The explosion which had leveled a building in the wee hours of the morning and had killed four people was going to keep him late on the one day he absolutely didn't want to stay late. All because that was what he was being ordered to do. He'd rather leave it to one of the commanders under him, but that wasn't going to happen.

"Sir, yes, sir!" he said, a second too late to be believable.

"Sure, you are." George rolled his eyes. "You are a pain in my ass, Whitlock."

"Why thank you for noticing." Emmett was tempted to give a flourishing bow but figured he probably shouldn't test the chief's patience _that much_.

"That wasn't a compliment, Whitlock."

"Well, it sure wasn't an insult." He grinned.

Emmett would have sworn that his boss was tempted to roll his eyes, but after a moment, he simply said, "You're dismissed."

Emmett quickly left the office, calling back the person who'd texted him.

"What do you want, Bree?" he asked as soon as the line picked up. He hated how he reacted to his eldest. But he hadn't known about her for so long, and by the time he'd actually contacted her and started getting involved in her life, any chance of a real father-daughter relationship was impossible.

Her decisions since had only made that all the more clear to him as she'd been making bad decisions from the day she turned eighteen: moving to Nevada to join a brothel, a few years later becoming a gambling addict, then having drug problems, and on and on it went. But, no matter how disappointed he was in her, he couldn't seem to cut her out of his life completely.

"Couldn't I have just wanted to hear your voice? You are my dad, after all."

The slight wheedling tone to her voice told him more than her words did.

"No. Now, what kind of trouble are you in, this time?"

"I need a small loan. Just a few hundred so I can get my car out of impound."

She called it a loan, but a loan implied it would be repaid, and she'd never paid him back a dime yet – this was hardly her first time asking for a so-called 'loan.'

He shook his head before letting out a resigned sigh. "Give me the amount you need, and I'll send a money order that way."

She did, finishing with, "Thanks, dad."

Then the line went dead.

Emmett shook his head again, then headed out to his car so he could go see the razed building that was going to be keeping him late.

…

Fifteen hours, and too many customers to count, later, and it was just about time for the store to close for the day.

The front door opened five minutes before closing – a chime of the bell that Rosalie was planning to destroy the instant they were closed notifying her of the new guest.

She looked up, hoping it was Emmett. It wasn't. But the guests were not unpleasant ones to see.

Rosalie cringed at the sound of feet running across the store – less because of the sound of the squeaking from the rubber soles on the new tile flooring and more over the thought of the floor getting scuffed.

A moment later, Morrigan slammed into Austin as a little girl with short hot-pink hair darted away from him and headed straight toward her.

Rosalie braced slightly as the girl jumped into her arms.

At eight years old, Sethetta was getting to the point where it wasn't reasonable to hold her. But her two dads spoiled her. And, in all honesty, so did Emmett and her. She was the biological daughter of Austin and a volunteer surrogate from La Push.

It bugged Rosalie more than she liked to admit that Garret and Austin had named their daughter after Seth, the man who they'd both cared for before he'd committed suicide. But she didn't really have much room to throw stones. After all, Jarlie was inspired from a mix of her dad's name and Emmett's dad's name.

She walked over to Austin, still holding Sethetta.

"Where's Gar?"

"He's not feeling well today," Austin said carefully.

If she'd looked more closely at his face, she'd have seen the bags under his eyes and wouldn't have asked.

"I'm sorry to hear that." And she was, though it was more about fear of how her husband would react than the thought of losing her brother-in-law. She did care for Garret, but she'd come to realistically accept the inevitable.

"Docs want him to go on something new, see if it helps him."

"Is he going to?"

"I don't know. If it weren't for –" he cut off his words as he glanced at Sethetta, and then shrugged "– well, you know."

She did. Rosalie had watched Garret struggle with his illness as it got worse and worse over the last few years.

"Where's your husband?" Austin asked, changing the subject.

"Still at work, I'm guessing."

Austin's nose wrinkled as Maggie walked to the front door and locked it.

"You sticking around to help clean up?"

"Might as well. Since muscles isn't here to help you."

She snorted.

…

Emmett had stopped by the store first when he'd finally gotten off for the night, but by the time he got there at almost midnight, it had already been all closed down and dark inside.

So he'd driven on home though Los Angeles traffic was bad enough that even in the middle of the night it had taken almost an hour to get home.

When he got home, he walked through his house, noting the extra pair of sneakers – the type that flash when kids run in them – that were in the entryway, which told him that Sethetta was spending the night.

He peeked in each of his kids' bedrooms on his way to the master bedroom. Little Sethetta was bunking in the same room as Demeter. Jarlie and Jerrimatt shared one room, and Morrigan and Valerie shared another. Which meant that the only one in a bedroom by himself was Sebastian.

Of course, Sebastian's room was locked – something that had been happening more and more in the last two years.

If his oldest son legitimately thought that he couldn't tell that his boy had picked up smoking pot, then he was seriously fooling himself. Emmett knew the smell of marijuana all too well.

Eventually, Emmett was going to have to put his foot down with his son. He looked at the door in contemplation...

But not just yet.

"Honey, I'm home," he declared in a murmur once he entered the master bedroom.

"About time." Rosalie glared at him, but there was no heat in the glare. "You missed the grand opening."

"Blame George." He started stripping out of his clothes.

"Well... You are a pain in the ass, Whitlock." She tried to give an impression of his boss, but it didn't really work for her.

He shook his head. "How was the grand opening?"

She closed her eyes, relaxing on the bed. "Long. Just fucking long."

He sat on the bed before leaning over her. "I love you, you know?"

Rosalie smiled at his words, not bothering to open her eyes. "I love you too."

He leaned down, pressing his lips to hers.


	4. A Walk Through the Woods

****Disclaimer: ****I am not Stephenie Meyer and therefore I do not own Twilight or the wonderful characters I screw with.

**A Walk Through the Woods**

_**June 5th, 2034**_

"Order up!" Bella hollered through the window to Sammy.

It had been more than twenty-one years since her restaurant had opened its doors to her first customers. Bella hadn't regretted a minute of it. Or at least she hadn't until two days prior when her youngest, Mirabeth, had graduated.

When the twins had graduated from high school a few years prior, she'd had a sous chef working for her who'd been able to man the restaurant while she'd gone to their graduation.

But he hadn't worked for her in more than two years. So she'd had to work during Mirabeth's graduation. Which had seriously pissed her off.

Okay, so she could have closed her diner down for the day – and part of her supposed that she should have – but she hadn't closed the restaurant once since she opened it. She hadn't been about to start.

Besides, since The Lodge had closed down in town about five years prior – after the owner, Bob, had died of a heart attack – her diner was the only real sit-down restaurant in Forks...

Okay, so it was actually about five miles out of Forks. The important detail was still true.

And today was yet another day she was regretting since she was working while her daughter was packing up her stuff so she could move to Seattle.

Because her daughter was an overachiever and was starting her college education early.

Of course, Edward was supposed to be there helping her.

In all reality, he probably was.

After all, her husband of more than twenty years hadn't had a relapse in more than eight years.

And in the last few years – mostly since her kids had gotten old enough that she felt she could risk it – there had been several stolen moments between him and her.

Some might call it a rekindling.

But, the truth was, she'd never stopped loving him.

Love had never been the problem. No, the problem between them had always stemmed around Edward's needs for his next hit. And though Bella had never blamed him for how he coped, she found the only thing that she could truly trust when it came to him was that he would eventually go back for another hit.

Even now, with him being eight years sober, she still believed it.

But, at least with all her kids grown up, she could finally try to truly be there for him again.

…

"Are you sure you want to take all of... this?" Edward waved his hands over the eight boxes they'd already packed.

"Yes."

"You're moving into a dorm, remember. They have a finite amount of space."

"I'll figure it out."

"Your mom will be happy to store stuff for you."

Mirabeth snorted. "Yeah, right. That's why she's working right now."

He frowned at his youngest. "Don't bad mouth your mom. You know her running that restaurant is what kept you and your siblings in this house with food on the table. It's also what's putting you through college."

"Humph."

Edward didn't always get Bella's need to work every single day, but he did know that it was important to her. And that her ethics were a large part of what made her who she was.

"Besides, maybe if I move out, you two will stop sneaking around like a set of adolescents," Mirabeth grumbled.

He jerked, looking at her in suspicion. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"_Da-aad. _I'm eighteen. I know what parentals sneaking in at random hours of the night means."

"I don't know what you're talking about," he muttered again, ducking his head slightly.

"_Suuure_."

Sometimes he wasn't sure where Mirabeth got her attitude. Other times, he wondered if it was how he would have been in another life.

He got back on topic so as to avoid what she was suggesting. "How big is the dorm room you're moving into? Aren't you going to be sharing it with another?"

She shrugged. "It's big enough, and yes."

He wasn't impressed with her non-answer, so he arched an eyebrow at her.

After a moment, she glanced at her father before looking away almost immediately, muttering as she did so, "I'll figure it out."

He crossed his arms over his chest. "Don't burn bridges just because you're in a hurry to grow up, Mirabeth Renee Cullen."

"I am grown up. I've been eighteen for four months. Besides, you didn't throw this much of a fit when Ephraim and Vanessa moved out."

"They took the summer off like normal people."

"Now, or in three months, I'm still moving out."

He grumbled something unintelligible under his breath and walked away from his little girl.

…

Bella pulled into the drive, noticing Mirabeth's car was fully loaded, and Edward's car was parked in the street.

If someone had told her when she'd been so desperate to have a child – to have the one thing she'd been told she'd likely never have – just how painful watching them grow up and form their own independence could be... Well, if she'd believed the person, then maybe she wouldn't have tried so hard.

And with Mirabeth moving out and heading off to Seattle, her house would be empty.

Part of her couldn't help but wonder if Mirabeth would even come back to visit.

Ephraim had only been back once in the four years since he'd graduated from high school, and that had been to rub his boyfriend, Boris, in his aunt's face. And no, Bella wasn't talking about her sister – who didn't even live in the state anymore – or Edward's twin. She meant Rachel, Jacob's big sister.

Vanessa came back more often than Ephraim did, usually visiting at Christmas, if nothing else.

Bella sighed and headed into her house, two cats darting out from under the couch and racing for the door just as she slammed it shut. "Don't even try it, Sharkie and Blackie."

Okay, so her house wouldn't be completely empty when Mirabeth moved out. The two cats that would only love on her for exactly half a second on any given day would still be there.

Her focus on her cats briefly kept her from noticing the shouting match that was coming from farther in the house.

"What your mom and I do is none of your business!"

"Then whether I want to date Chet or not is none of yours!"

"He's too old for you!"

"He's only twenty-four!"

"THAT'S TOO OLD FOR YOU!"

"I'm EIGHTEEN. I can do what I want!"

If Bella had known the topic was going to come up, she'd have warned Edward just to nod and smile. Of course, she'd paid more attention to her daughter's dating habits, so she knew it wouldn't last.

As it was, though, she leaned against the front door and tried to resist the urge to laugh.

She'd let Edward be all parental for a while.

…

He stood beside Bella in the front yard as Mirabeth pulled out of the drive. He clenched his right hand into a fist by his side as he watched.

The only reason he didn't do the same with the other was it was holding Bella's hand.

Once Mirabeth was down the road, he looked to Bella, finding tears running down her face.

He looked away.

He never did know what to do when she cried.

"Let's go for a walk," he finally murmured.

There was a brief pause, and Edward could practically hear her going through the more sarcastic answers and discarding them. "Sure. I mean, okay."

Instead of walking down the street and going further into Forks, he turned and lead them into the woods.

"As of last week, it's officially been a year since my last session with Carlisle," he said softly once they'd gone a little way in.

"I didn't know you'd stopped seeing him completely."

"He did as much as he could for me. I'm not... cured, I guess you could say. But I'm better. I've, if not accepted my past, at least I now understand it for what is."

"What does that mean?"

"Well, I was afraid to trust it, but I haven't gone back on any drugs since I stopped seeing him. In fact, in about another year and a half, I'll officially be ten years clean."

He could see the suspicion in her eyes.

"Look, I'm not saying I'll never have another relapse, but I think I'm finally out of the worst of it."

"So, where do we go from here?" she asked.

He shrugged. "I don't know, but we broke off our marriage mostly because I was incapable of making healthy choices and because you were worried about the safety of our kids. Even if, at the time, I was a bit angry about it... Well, I get it. Besides, they're grown up now. And I want us to try again. To start over. I want more than just a few stolen moments in the dark."

"Will starting over work?"

"I don't know, but you once told me that no matter what else happened, you loved me. Well, maybe once, love can be enough."

He leaned forward, pressing his forehead against hers.

"Let it be enough."


	5. Forever

****Disclaimer: ****I am not Stephenie Meyer and therefore I do not own Twilight or the wonderful characters I screw with.

**Forever**

_**September 20th, 2036**_

He closed his eyes and tilted his face to the sky. He was waiting for someone, though he couldn't really remember who anymore. He was at peace with himself, though he still remembered...

He hadn't found peace in life.

But that wasn't the case anymore. Part of him knew that he was waiting on somebody in his own little world. The thing was, even though he knew days were passing – perhaps months or even years – it often felt like no time had passed at all.

He wasn't sure how to describe where he was. Sometimes he'd swear he was in a field; wide, rolling, and greener than anything he'd ever seen when he was alive. Other times all around him, it was white, or perhaps a light gray, like he was in the clouds – or at least in a land of smoke. And other times, it was pure darkness.

Some of it would probably feel disturbing to a lot of people. But he knew he was safe, he wasn't a hundred percent certain how he knew it, he just did.

He wasn't a hundred percent certain where he was, though he didn't think it was heaven... or hell. Maybe purgatory or someplace else like it.

Which, if it was some sort of place for lost souls that had no place else to go, he had to wonder why he was at peace with it.

But he couldn't truly bother himself to focus on it for long.

"Impossible." A voice said suddenly.

He sat up, looking in the direction the voice came from, his eyes widening as he recognized the man in front of him. The man looked slightly older than he remembered, a smattering of hair on his face that he'd never had before.

"Impossible," the man said again, stopping too far away.

He stood up, starting to make his way toward the man. "How long has it been?"

"You've been gone for twenty-five years."

He looked at the only man he'd ever loved even closer. "You don't look like you're in your early sixties."

The man glanced down at himself briefly. "Huh, what do you know, a gray tweed shirt and jeans." Then he shook his head. "Probably for the best that I don't look as I did when I... Well, it wasn't a pleasant sight. But how are you here? And where are we?"

He shrugged. "I don't know the answers to those questions. I've just known I was waiting for someone. Waiting for you, it seems."

"I have so much to tell you. So much you missed."

"We have time."

The man took the last step to him. "I never thought I'd see you again, Seth."

Garrett leaned down and kissed him.


End file.
